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Shyamalan gives Mel his biggest career hit
Signs still strong at the US BO
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Arthur J Pais
In M Night Shyamalan's Signs, Mel Gibson played a clergyman who loses his faith after his wife's death in an accident. One of the most bankable stars in Hollywood, Gibson says he had a hunch that working with Shyamalan would be magical.
This weekend Shyamalan gave Gibson the biggest hit of his career. The durable summer hit Signs emerged for the third time as the highest grossing film in North America with an estimated $16.5 million weekend gross and $195 million in 32 days. Gibson's previous record-setting comedy What Women Want had lured about $184 million in North America two years ago.
Signs, which became profitable by its third weekend (which, by itself, is a rare Hollywood phenomenon), is also the only film this summer to appear three weekends at No 1.
It opened at the top spot during the first weekend of August with an astounding $60 million gross, dropped to the second place by Van Diesel's XXX over the next two weekends, and then recaptured the top place last weekend.
The third place on the box-office chart this weekend went to XXX, which grossed an impressive $13 million in about 3536 theatres.
Among the summer releases the top five films are expected to gross about $1.4 billion. Spider-Man, with its $405 million gross and Star Wars: Episode II with about $301 million, are nearing the end of their run. The third movie among the top five would be Signs with about $230 million, followed by Austin Powers (about $220 million) and Men In Black II ($193 million).
While it looks like Signs could again emerge as the leader next week, it faces substantial challenge from the sleeper of the year (so far) which for the first time in its 20-week long run climbed to second position. My Big Fat Greek Wedding in 1,619 theatres (up from last week with 290 theatres), earned $14.6 million this weekend, with its total reaching $82.4 million (Signs, on the other hand is in about 3,430 movie houses).
Made for $3.5-$5 million, MBFGW, which will easily surpass the $100 million benchmark in two weeks, is one of the most profitable independent films ever made.
MBFGW is about a plain-looking 30-plus woman (Nia Vardalos), who was expected to be a spinster and the chaos she brings to her proud Greek-American family when she gets engaged to an American protestant.
Among the new movies, the techie horror Feardotcom grossed a disappointing $7.1 million while the sturdy Austin Powers in Goldmember made about the same, ending up with $203 million.
Another film that has shown good staying power is Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams. With its $7.3 million gross, it is headed for a healthy $80 million final take. Two art house films, both released by Fox Searchlight, did excellent business.
The Jennifer Aniston black comedy about marriage and adultery, The Good Girl, jumped four places to No 9 with $3.6 million in its fourth weekend. It rose from 188 to 667 theatres, with $7.3 million. The low-budget film could earn an impressive $25 million in North America.
Robin Williams' creepy performance as a stalker in One Hour Photo is talk of the town. As it added hundreds of theatres to last week's count, the low budget film soared 14 places in its second weekend to tie at No 10 with DreamWorks' Road To Perdition. Both reported $3.3 million.
One Hour Photo has grossed about $3.6 million so far and Road To Perdition is fast approaching the $100 million benchmark. On Hour Photo could be playing in about 1,000 theatres in the next week, and could gross an impressive $50 million. This weekend it was playing in just about 164 movie houses. Williams is widely talked about as an Oscar contender.